It would have cost approximately $175,000 in overtime to continue running the engine company, DeNapoli said. The overtime was necessary because the station is short-staffed. Without it, only one company can operate.

“You always worry about safety,” DeNapoli said. “As long as we don’t have a major fire, we’re in good shape.”

The fire department had 21 firefighter vacancies as of March of this year, based on a 2006 level of 213 positions, Francis wrote in a letter to Carpenter during budget season.

Filling the vacancies would have allowed “proper” staffing of the department’s nine companies and would have provided “a safer working environment for the on-duty firefighters,” along with “better fire protection and better emergency medical services to the citizens of Brockton,” the chief wrote.

The department is also down to two ladder trucks and is seeking federal funding for a third.

Earlier this year, Francis said he did not include $1 million in the fiscal year 2015 city budget for a new ladder truck because of fiscal constraints. The department’s two ladder trucks are in poor condition, five and 10 years past their expected life cycle.

The department is waiting to hear from the Federal Emergency Management Agency about a $1 million grant request to help pay for a new truck. Carpenter lobbied for the money through the state’s congressional delegation on a trip to Washington, DC in June.